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Storytelling: The Road to Success *Revision 1*

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Project Proposal

Topic: What Makes a Story Successful in Photojournalism?

Overview

All of us have a story to share, however, not many of us are afforded the chance to share their stories. Often times, many of us are silenced because of religion, sexual orientation or out of fear. And then there are those who find courage to share their stories. Today, many stories are widely shared online and are successful. My definition of success in photojournalism is the amount of times a photo has been liked on Instagram and Twitter and how viewers engage with the image whether it is by commenting, sharing the image or if they repost the image. A successfully received story online is one that makes viewers engage in the story. This image can be circulated through many different platforms such as Facebook, popular blog and can end up on the TV.

The development of new technologies has changed the way individuals share their stories. Traditional ways of sharing stories by publishing memoirs or being interviewed are not common these days. One of the way individuals share their stories is by participating in photo blogs such as Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton and StoryCorps by David Isay which has changed the narrative of photojournalism. Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism (the collecting, editing, and presenting of news material for publication or broadcast) that employs images in order to tell a news story. These sites allow viewers to engage with the stories by liking, sharing and commenting. Often times viewers are able to engage with the story on a deeper level. By exploring photojournalism within the blog Humans of New York, I will look specifically at how individuals share their stories on fear and how it presents a opportunity for viewers to engage with those stories. I will track how the image is shared, how many likes it received, how viewers engaged with it and if it was successful.

Objective

For this project, I will examine the blog Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton, a blog that shares stories which provides a new light on photojournalism and cultivates a new type of visual experience. Another blog I will examine is StoryCorps, a nonprofit that provide Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve their life story. I will review photos from Humans of New York and videos from StoryCorps that sheds light on fear. I want to analyze how they share their story and how viewers engaged with the image because it will help me to write my memoir.

In this project, I will explain the following:

  1. Why do people share their story?
  2. What makes a story successful?
  3. Can anyone make a successful story?

Other elements to explore:

  1. Create a image similar to Humans of New York with a person and a quote about their life and post on Instagram and Twitter.
  2. Compare my attempt to try to create a image similar to Humans of New York with a success image from Human of New York, the image will be tracked on Instagram and Twitter via those networks analytics.
  3. A blog post on my personal blog to share the image and write a reflection piece.

Topics and Projected Timeline:

Week of the 15th 

Explain what is photojournalism and visual storytelling.

A.) History of photojournalism and visual storytelling, the new technologies within the world of new media and the platforms.

B.) Write out the history and mission of Humans of New York.

C.) Explain its best practices and strategies that are successful

D.) Select a image from Humans of New York that “successfully” captures a story on fear

  • Examine the photo with the listed Visual Literacy Guideline
  • a. Define the purpose of the image within the project (e.g., illustration, evidence, primary source, focus of analysis, critique, commentary)
    b. Define the scope (e.g., reach, audience) and environment (e.g., academic environment, open web) of the planned image use
    c. Articulates criteria that need to be met by the image (e.g., subject, pictorial content, color, resolution, specific item)
    d. Identifies key concepts and terms that describe the needed image
    e. Identifies discipline-specific conventions for image use
  • How did the image and content successfully or unsuccessfully tell the story?

Week of the 22nd

A.) History of photojournalism and visual storytelling, the new technologies within the world of new media and the platforms.

B.) Write out the history and mission of StoryCorps

C.) Explain its best practices and strategies that are successful

D.) Review videos from StoryCorps that “successfully” captures a story on fear

Examine the photo with the listed Visual Literacy Guideline

  • a. Define the purpose of the image within the project (e.g., illustration, evidence, primary source, focus of analysis, critique, commentary)
    b. Define the scope (e.g., reach, audience) and environment (e.g., academic environment, open web) of the planned image use
    c. Articulate criteria that need to be met by the image (e.g., subject, pictorial content, color, resolution, specific item)
    d. Identifies key concepts and terms that describe the needed image
    e. Identifies discipline-specific conventions for image use
  • How did the image and content successfully or unsuccessfully tell the story?

Week of the 29th

A.) Create a comparative analysis of Humans of New York and Storycorps

B.) Prospect

  • Interview a prospect on the subject of fear and share a photo with a caption similar to Humans of New York which will we shared via Instagram
  • Instagram– The image will be tracked daily on Instagram, by recording how many likes it received, how many comments it received and whether it was remixed.
  • Twitter– The image will be tracked daily on Twitter by recording how many times it was viewed, how many retweets it received or how many times it was favorited.
  • WordPress-The image will be tracked daily on Black Attire Aficionado  by recording how many times it was viewed, how many times it was reblogged it received and how many times it was favorited.

Week of the 6th

A.) Explain the findings on what makes a image successful

B.) Write a reflection on the process of creating the image, was it successful or not?

  • What would I do differently?
  • What other platforms should I have used?
  • Reviews on the image from classmates
  • Was it hard to circulate the image?

Deliverables

  1. A comparative analysis of Humans of New York and StoryCorps
  2. A image created that mirrors Human of New York, this will be located on Instagram,Twitter, and Black Attire Aficionado
  3. A reflection of my success or failure with creating a image
  4. The end-result will be presented in the form of short short film/video of some sort which will be posted to Jodieann Stephenson’s e-portfolio site TBD

 

 

Project Project Blog-Round 1

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At first, the final project for Writing with New Media seemed like this big pile of confusion. I completely misunderstood the entire project, I was lost in translation. I started to toy with a few ideas and then I went off the wrong path and landed into a ball of confusion and frustration. My initial project proposal was surrounded on the idea of visual rhetoric and culture and new technologies has led to the creation of various online communities which play a role in shaping visual rhetoric and culture. I wanted to examine how many individuals used photos as a way to use visual rhetoric/ visual storytelling to quantify themselves. I wanted to explore if photos needed content and if different cultures play a role in how we interpret images. Specifically, I wanted to probe the question “Has our cultural beliefs affected the way we interpret a image and why does it affect the way the see a image? I believe that many of these images has shaped the way we see the world and it has been reinforced by new media and leads to misinterpretation. My contention was that phycology, environmental factors, traumatic events, fear, and age are major factors that play a role in how our psyche interprets an image.  Although this seemed like a phenomenal topic to explore, it was not what the project asked for. What I was imaging was a complex psychology topic which would require world class psychologist and a massive research center. Again that was not the project. I started to get frustrated and shut down.

Then take 2. For the second revision I tried to revise the project using the same idea– not a good idea. In revision number two, I approached the question “Can Photojournalism Changes Our Biases?” This was just like the first proposal, it was more of a proposed theory, there was no practical deliverables for the project. This one was even more emotional based because it would require a psychoanalysis of what happens to me when I review a image and if it changes my biases. Again this was not the assignment.  Slowly but surely, I realized that I wanted my project to center around the ideas of photojournalism and storytelling. Once I discovered that these ideas could potentially blossom into something unique, I ran with it. The next stop of the project was to find sources that supported my idea that I was still nurturing. The annotated bibliography gave me a chance to dig deeper into research that would support my ideas. Within my research that I composed because of the annotated bibliography, it was made clear to me that I wanted to explore how individuals are able to successfully share their stories via new social media platforms and have a voice for the first time. This project is meaningful to me because by learning what makes a story successful will contribute to my memoir. I intend to publish a memoir in my early 40s, and if I can learn the ins and outs now– it will be very successful.

Now that I have gathered together my proposal, I am waiting for it to be approved and then I can get moving. Looking forward I want to begin my work on the week of the 15th because I am very much behind. I need to begin researching the photo blog Humans of New York and clearly define its mission statement. I will analyze a image that successfully captures the ideal storytelling in a photo from the blog then analyze it deeper by using the visual literacies guideline. Also, I’d like to begin writing parts of my reflection piece.

Goal checking- to successfully stick to the timeline that I’ve carved out for myself.

Storytelling: The Road to Success *Revision*

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Project Proposal

Topic: What Makes a Story Successful in Photojournalism?

 

Overview

All of us have a story to share, however, not many of us are afforded the chance to share their stories. Often times, many of us are silenced because of religion, sexual orientation or out of fear. And then there are those who find courage to share their stories. What makes these individuals share their story and how it provides them an opportunity to have a voice? Is there a successful way to share your story?

The development of new technologies has changed the way individuals share their stories. Traditional ways of sharing stories by publishing memoirs or being interviewed are not common these days. One of the way individuals share their stories is by participating in photo blogs such as Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton and StoryCorps by David Isay which has changed the narrative of photojournalism. Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism (the collecting, editing, and presenting of news material for publication or broadcast) that employs images in order to tell a news story. By exploring photojournalism within the blog Humans of New York, I will look specifically at how individuals share their stories on fear. I will look at the response viewers, commentators engage in within the platform of Instagram.

Objective

For this project, I will examine the blog Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton, a blog that shares stories which provides a new light on photojournalism and cultivates a new type of visual experience. Another blog I will examine is StoryCorps, a nonprofit that provide Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve their life story. I will review photos from Humans of New York and videos from StoryCorps that sheds light on fear. I want to analyze how they share their story because it will help me to write my memoir.

In this project, I will explain the following:

  1. Why do people share their story?
  2. What makes a story successful?
  3. Can anyone make a successful story?

Other elements to explore:

  1. Create a image similar to Humans of New York with a person and a quote about their life and post on Instagram and Twitter.
  2. Compare my attempt to try to create a image similar to Humans of New York with a success image from Human of New York, the image will be tracked on Instagram and Twitter via those networks analytics.
  3. A blog post on my personal blog to share the image and write a reflection piece.

 

Definition*

Photojournalism-is a particular form of journalism (the collecting, editing, and presenting of news material for publication or broadcast) that employs images in order to tell a news story.

Storytelling-is the conveying of events in words, sound and/or images, often by improvisation or embellishment

Visual storytelling-is a story told primarily through the use of visual media. The story may be told using still photography, illustration, or video, and can be enhanced with graphics, music, voice and other audio.

Success-the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.

Image- a representation of the external form of a person or thing in art.

Visual literacy– is the ability to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image, extending the meaning of literacy, which commonly signifies interpretation of a written or printed text

 

Multimodalities:

WordPress Blog, Instagram, Twitter, Prezi, hyperlinks

 

Topics and Projected Timeline:

Week of the 15th 

Explain what is photojournalism and visual storytelling.

A.) History of photojournalism and visual storytelling, the new technologies within the world of new media and the platforms.

B.) Write out the history and mission of Humans of New York.

C.) Explain its best practices and strategies that are successful

D.) Select a image from Humans of New York that “successfully” captures a story on fear

  • Examine the photo with the listed Visual Literacy Guideline
  • a. Defines the purpose of the image within the project (e.g., illustration, evidence, primary source, focus of analysis, critique, commentary)
    b. Defines the scope (e.g., reach, audience) and environment (e.g., academic environment, open web) of the planned image use
    c. Articulates criteria that need to be met by the image (e.g., subject, pictorial content, color, resolution, specific item)
    d. Identifies key concepts and terms that describe the needed image
    e. Identifies discipline-specific conventions for image use
  • How did the image and content successfully or unsuccessfully tell the story?

Week of the 22nd

A.) History of photojournalism and visual storytelling, the new technologies within the world of new media and the platforms.

B.) Write out the history and mission of StoryCorps

C.) Explain its best practices and strategies that are successful

D.) Review videos from StoryCorps that “successfully” captures a story on fear

Examine the photo with the listed Visual Literacy Guideline

  • a. Defines the purpose of the image within the project (e.g., illustration, evidence, primary source, focus of analysis, critique, commentary)
    b. Defines the scope (e.g., reach, audience) and environment (e.g., academic environment, open web) of the planned image use
    c. Articulates criteria that need to be met by the image (e.g., subject, pictorial content, color, resolution, specific item)
    d. Identifies key concepts and terms that describe the needed image
    e. Identifies discipline-specific conventions for image use
  • How did the image and content successfully or unsuccessfully tell the story?

Week of the 29th

A.) Create a comparative analysis of Humans of New York and Storycorps

B.) Prospect

  • Interview a prospect on the subject of fear and share a photo with a caption similar to Humans of New York which will we shared via Instagram
  • Instagram– The image will be tracked daily on Instagram, by recording how many likes it received, how many comments it received and whether it was remixed.
  • Twitter– The image will be tracked daily on Twitter by recording how many times it was viewed, how many retweets it received or how many times it was favorited.
  • WordPress-The image will be tracked daily on Black Attire Aficionado  by recording how many times it was viewed, how many times it was reblogged it received and how many times it was favorited.

Week of the 6th

A.) Explain the findings on what makes a image successful

B.) Write a reflection on the process of creating the image, was it successful or not?

  • What would I do differently?
  • What other platforms should I have used?
  • Reviews on the image from classmates
  • Was it hard to circulate the image?

Deliverables

  1. A comparative analysis of Humans of New York and StoryCorps
  2. A image created that mirrors Human of New York, this will be located on Instagram, Twitter, and Black Attire Aficionado
  3. A reflection of my success or failure with creating a image
  4. The end-result will be presented in the form of short short film/video of some sort which will be posted to Jodieann Stephenson’s e-portfolio site TBD

 

What Makes A Story Successful in Photojournalism? *Revision*

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Project Proposal

Topic: What Makes a Story Successful in Photojournalism?

By exploring photojournalism and visual storytelling, these two disciplines can potentially aid in how individuals share their stories in various new media platforms, which can offer insight in what makes a successful story. I intend to introduce three types of images from the blog Humans of New York and Storycorps that successfully captures the narrative of photojournalism and how it presents an opportunity to give individuals a voice. 

For this project, I will examine the blog Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton, a blog that shares stories while offering a new light on photojournalism and cultivating a new type of visual experience and StoryCorps, a nonprofit that provide Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories of our lives. I will view 3 photos from Humans of New York and 3 videos from StoryCorps that I find visually captivating and content that sheds light on the individual in an effort to chart what makes a successful story.

In this project, I will explain the following:

  1. How can you successfully tell your story?
  2. How does reading or watching a story transforms an individual?

Other elements to explore:

  1. Create a image similar to Humans of New York with a person and a quote about their life and post on Instagram and Twitter.
  2. Compare my attempt to try to create a image similar to Humans of New York with a success image from Human of New York, the image will be tracked on Instagram and Twitter via those networks analytics.
  3. A blog post on my personal blog to share the image and write a reflection piece.

 

Definition*

 

Photojournalism-is a particular form of journalism (the collecting, editing, and presenting of news material for publication or broadcast) that employs images in order to tell a news story.

Storytelling-is the conveying of events in words, sound and/or images, often by improvisation or embellishment

Visual storytelling-

Success-the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.

Image- a representation of the external form of a person or thing in art.

 

Multimodalities:

WordPress Blog, Instagram, Twitter, Prezi

Topics and Projected Timeline:

Week of the 15th 

Explain what is photojournalism and visual storytelling.

A.) History of photojournalism and visual storytelling, the new technologies within the world of new media and the platforms.

B.) Write out the history and mission of Humans of New York.

C.) Explain its best practices and strategies that are successful

D.) Select three images from Humans of New York

  • Examine the photos, critique the photos using the visual literacies guidelines
  • Discuss the process of this via online journal
  • How did the image and content successfully tell the story

Week of the 22nd

A.) History of photojournalism and visual storytelling, the new technologies within the world of new media and the platforms.

B.) Write out the history and mission of Storycorps.

C.) Explain its best practices and strategies that are successful

D.) Select three images from Storycorps

  • Examine the photos, critique the photos using the visual literacies guidelines
  • Discuss the process of this via online journal
  • How did the image and content successfully tell the story

Week of the 29th

A.) Create a comparative analysis of Humans of New York and Storycorps

B.) Pros and Cons

C.) Prospect

  • Find someone to try and successfully create a photo similar to Humans of New York and shared to Instagram and Twitter
  • The image will be tracked daily on Instagram, I will also use hashtags to help circulate the image on Instagram and on Twitter.
  • Perhaps embed this image and write a blog post on OpenLab

Week of the 6th

A.)Explain why it is important to create  successful story in photojournalism

B.) Write a reflection on the process of creating the image, was it successful or not?

  • What would I do different?
  • What other platforms should I have used?
  • How should I promote the image?
  • Reviews on the image from classmates
  • Was it hard to circulate the image?

 

Deliverables

  1. Analysis of Humans of New York and three images
  2. Analysis of Humans of Storycorps and three images
  3. A image created by me that mirrors Human of New York, this will be on Instagram on my personal account because I have a decent number of followers
  4. A comparative analysis between the two sites.
  5. A reflection of my success or failure with creating an images
  6. A recommended guideline TBD
  7. The end-result will be presented in the form of short short film/video of some sort which will be posted to Jodieann Stephenson’s e-portfolio site.

 

 

Revised Final Project Proposal

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My focus for this final project will be framed around twitter and user engagement. I originally wanted to observe two very popular and active twitter accounts for their user engagement but now I’m tailoring it to build my brand on twitter. I am basing my strategy on the textbooks and material we’ve read in class as well as outside sources. My objective is to see if by applying these concepts I can gain a larger following. After looking through the material and realizing I would like to have a larger twitter presence I propose to apply one strategy a week and in the end seeing if they have increased my user engagement or following.

On twitter there is a feature that allows you to track the engagement of your tweets, it tells you how many users have seen my content. So I would in turn be able to see if the tactics are working.

REVISION: The deliverables i will be providing will be in the form of the analytics bar on twitter, i will be screen shotting and posting the weeks results on my e portfolio and then reflecting on the experience and then comparing the results to the sources suggested outcomes.

First I will average my current user engagement to compare to the engagement at the end.

I have broken down into 5 weeks the strategies I plan to apply and at the end of the week I will see by how much, if any my engagement increased.

Week #1- Leverage trending topics. I will explore the moments and trending sections of twitter and engage in the conversation for at least 2 of them per day.

Week #2- Boost visibility by tweeting with at least three content based hashtags that represent a call to action.

Week #3- Fuel my profile with shared content. I will share and comment on popular stories to attract or raise questions about the content.

Week #4- Branch out. I will locate and attempt to engage with three professionals in my desired career field (marketing).

Week #5- Cross post. In the last week I will share my content from linkedin and open lab on my twitter to show professional work on my twitter feed as well.

Week #6- For the last week I will gather and assess my data, see which week had the largest engagement and overall by how much (if any) my engagement increased.

My objective for doing this project is to better learn how to management my content online and build a profile to reflect that of an emerging professional. At the end and in the final version I want to answer these three questions.

  1. How did I apply each strategy? What was hardest and what was easiest about doing so? Which did I feel worked the best?
  2. Which one statistically had the largest engagement increase and over all by what percent did my user engagement change?
  3. Did I accomplish my goal? If not how do I plan on continuing to do so and what do I think my twitter profile now reflects of me as a student, professional and person?

My sources potentially would be:

Digital Literacy Text

Writing with new Media Text

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnrampton/2014/09/29/25-ways-to-grow-your-social-media-presence/

26 Tips to Strengthen Your Social Media Marketing

http://mashable.com/2011/12/15/branding-and-social-media/#j_qJ42Q0haqM

I plan to add additional sources as I go into depth about why people are drawn to certain content, what makes content engaging and what is the best time of day to publish content.

 

Final Project Proposal

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Throughout this semester we have covered a variety of new media trends and how they change how we use the affordances of social media. For my project I would like to focus on virility and how stories, ideas and even current fads spread.

My focus or main tool will be twitter as that is my favorite social media platform, it is also the one that changes the fastest and is the most fluid in its trends. I propose following two verified (twitter’s label for reputable users) sources, one being entertainment or trends and one being news and current events. At this moment I have two main twitter feeds I would like to track the first being Cosmopolitan and the other being CNN.

My goal is to sit down daily and track both accounts daily activity and then record their virility. I will ask the following questions,

  1. Which account posted more, was it frequent throughout the day or grouped together?
  2. Which account got more retweets or shares, mentions and overall response?
  3. Were there any similarities in the stories, if so how were the reporting of the events different?
  4. Which account saw a more positive user engagement? Why might that be?

My goal is to see what type of information a twitter user notices and gives reaction to. For example does a political story about Syria or a “Top 5” blog from Cosmo rake in more web-traffic?

We as a society do most of our day to day activities online but how much of that information do we actually process and are we jaded or indifferent to the current events of the world and more interested in what’s keeping us entertained. By following both these twitter feeds over a month’s time I hope to see overall which twitter account garnishes more regular recognition and engagement. Both accounts are big names in their respective worlds and are widely recognized names.

At the end of the project I plan to answer the following in my final product,

  1. Which account consistently had more user engagement? Was it positive, negative or neutral?
  2. Which account posted more regularly and was that a factor?
  3. Formulate a hypothesis with the collected data as to why one was more favored over the other.
  4. Does this data suggest a change in the type of information we prefer to see online?

Viral posts are a norm online and often we will see the same story told through multiple channels and we all have a favorite source. However is that source a cookie cutter news outlet like CNN or FOX or is it a blog like the gothamist or Cosmo. I hope to gage whether or not there is a preference among twitter users and if so what it is.

The only variation to my project that i am on the fence about is potentially following two types of each account for example CNN and FOX and Cosmo and US weekly to better back up any results i may find. Overall though the general idea is news vs. entertainment.